Injured Turtle Gets Custom LEGO Wheelchair

posted by Meredith Michaels -
Sep 27, 2018

An injured wild Eastern box turtle was found at the Maryland Zoo. Employees brought him to the zoo’s hospital with injuries to the bottom part of his shell. The location of the injuries made it extremely difficult to repair while also keeping the turtle mobile while healing.

The team was able to repair the terrible fractures with clasps, wire and metal bone plates, but they did not have a wheelchair for the healing process. Since there are no devices small enough for the grapefruit sized turtle, the surgical team got creative! They sketched a customize wheelchair and shared the sketches with a LEGO enthusiast friend, who brought the design to life, using LEGO bricks.

He now has a small LEGO frame around his shell that sits on four LEGO wheels and he is adapting well. Turtles take longer to heal than other animals, so he’ll likely have his wheelchair until next spring. Check out the pics on Facebook below or the full story here!